Coppell High School senior Jeffrey Wang is a Red Jacket and is deeply involved in the art program. CHS students voted on the 19 most influential seniors in the graduating class of 2023.
Jeffrey Wang: Visionary
A colorful explosion of culture and language peeks from under the stairs; its fresh paint vibrant against the gray carpet. The new mural, which replaced its quintessential white, black and red predecessor in September, was created over the summer by Coppell High School senior Jeffrey Wang with the help of art students.
According to Wang, the story starts in eighth grade with a plucky group of Coppell Middle School North art students who had the idea and enthusiasm, but lacked organization. Their mural was never finished, but the idea planted as a seed in Wang’s mind, coming to fruition four years later as his Eagle Scout project: an exploration of cultural identity, motivated by Wang’s own identity as a Chinese American and the effect of isolation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic on his own self-confidence. Fitting with the collaborative nature of its creation, its multilingual greetings––including a “hello” in binary and American Sign Language––are aimed to be a celebration of the diverse CHS community.
“I’m known as the art dude, the physics guy, the person who, if the Zoom is silent, is the one talking,” Wang said. “The legacy I want to leave is being familiar, joyful and someone who is ever-present. The mural was how I made that reality.”
Wang’s art career is set to take Carnegie Mellon University by storm in the fall. He will be majoring in computer science and studio art, which he describes as “a universal visual language and the fabric of our lives.” The mural will remain, ever-present and steadfast, with CHS and its student body.
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